Leaf Trail

I was trying to work out what appealed to me in this image. I thought it was the arrangement of the round mossy boulders, after all that was why I took the shot. I also liked the strong light streaming in through the trees illuminating this little pocket in the woods as if by spot lighting on a stage.

However, when I edited the image I realised it needed quite a few steps to balance the light, especially the leaves. A few of them were very bright making white spots that were distracting. Without those, I began to see some areas had more light than others and only when that evened out, did the pathway of leaves through the rocks become evident. They seem to flow down like a stream and that became my engagement with the image.